Solitude
by Panlah Pride
Summary: Rita Mordio, genius mage! Also one of the most violent girls you'd ever meet. Teddy in diguise? Well, she insists otherwise, but that facade of hers is slowly melting.. and there are some things even she can't hope to understand. Spoiler Warning Yurita
1. Routine

Disclaimer: Only saying this once, but I don't own Tales of Vesperia or its characters.

Another heads up: This is Yurita. Light Yurita, but Yurita nontheless. If you don't like the pairing, please don't read it and flame me.

I also plan to be deviating away from the actualy plot of the game at some point, so bear with me! And I know some of the dialogue is wrong. I hate copying dialogue word for word.

I accept criticism, but no flames. I hate it when people just send me mindless hatemail with nothing to work off of.

Editor and Proofreader – Arrow-1

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'Another day. It's always the same routine. Wake up, eat, hike to the ruins, and then sit for hours and hours, waiting for that blastia to let its guard down, with nothing to pass the time but research I'd already completed.

The ruins are always silent. I'm always alone. The only things to be heard there are the constant echoes of dripping water, and the footsteps of the blastia as it faithfully patrols its territory in the deepest chamber. No one to keep me company, no one to talk to. It's unnerving. I don't like to admit it, but there are some things even blastia can't do. No matter how much you try to talk to one, they can't respond- though they make for great listeners.

Then again, people aren't all that great for conversation either…but that may be my fault. Walking home, the only greetings I receive are glares. People avoid me, as if I have some sort of disease.

I really don't understand what I've done to deserve the treatment. I've always worked as hard as hard as the rest of them, haven't I? In fact, I seem to recall working harder, much harder. If it weren't for me, blastia research would fall behind by years_, and this is the thanks I get? How dare they!_

I swear, and these people wonder why I get 'uppity'-

I was jolted back to reality by a loud crash grabbing hold of my ears. I looked up from my perch on the rocks and spied the blastia, patrolling like a faithful watch dog...albeit, a bored one. It seemed to have had added a new dent to the wall.

'_Maybe it got too close. Maybe it's tired of walking around the same platform…I guess even blastia get bored. Poor thing…'_

The blastia- which I'd decided to name "Goliath"- couldn't leave this place. It couldn't jump over or swim across the moat around itself- it was just too heavy. It was doomed to forever lumber about the ruins like a person that had forgotten why they entered a room. __

I'd long since forgotten why I continued coming to this place. I couldn't destroy the blastia, and I certainly couldn't surprise it. The formula that made it move was the main reason I'd been putting forth time in the first place. After a while, anyone that had ever come with me started to lose interest. They were amazed that it could move, of course, but the wonder in that died for them quickly.

Idiots.

Of course, some retained some vested fascination. Like me, they wanted to learn Goliath's secrets. But unlike me, they wanted to reveal them by destroying him. _Animals._ You can't hurt Goliath. You just can't. He's just doing what he was told to do: Guard. To him, Shaikos was just as important to his people today as it had been when he was born. All he knew was to protect Shaikos. To kill him now...

I looked up into the sky through a fracture in the ceiling. Noon. Time to head back. I gathered what notes I'd brought with me, and with one last look at poor Goliath, started my trek back to Aspio.

**----------**

As I set foot back in Aspio I was struck with a sensation of extreme cold. I can't say it was out of the ordinary. As I followed the stairs up, and then down again to my home on the cliff, I knew I was attracting the usual snide remarks and chilling glares that accompanied me wherever I went. "There goes Mordio", they'd say. "Off to catch another Leprechaun," they'd jeer, drilling into my back with their unforgiving eyes.

And then the door closed behind me, and I ceased to exist in the public eye. Walking in today, I nearly trip over one of my many piles of books. I can't help but note that this is steadily becoming routine. I'd considered cleaning up dozens of times but never really got to it, for any number of reasons. I picked up the books I'd knocked onto the floor and placed them semi-neatly in a pile with their siblings. …I'd almost forgotten I had a floor.

Walking over to my table I sat down, spreading my notes over the surface and looking them over. I'd written down movement patterns, theories on power, pretty much anything I could get from ten meters of distance. The incomplete formula was scribbled on a paper, remnants of what someone had managed to get before being attacked by the blastia he was studying.

The door behind me separated me from the judgment of the people beyond...but then, it separated me from everything else as well. Dust and literature were all I had here, the only sound to disturb the silence being that of my own breathing, in and out, in and out, uninterrupted. I got up and walked back over to my pile of books, finding a small clearing in that literary overgrowth and sitting down there. Whenever I felt like this, reading did wonders to cheer me up.

Volumes of forgotten lore, records of the theories and laws of geniuses past; when reading these books I could forget my troubles, finding solace in the fact that I was not alone. I'd read all these books before and they held nothing new, but I could read them over and over, following the trials of those who preceded me.

Somewhere between the blastia encyclopedia's ending and the twelfth of "Legendary Constellations" things started getting hazy. Then next thing I knew, I was waking up to the sounds of footsteps across my floor.

"Wow, who could live in a place like this?" A young and somewhat feminine voice called. These words surely came from a young girl, or some small child.

Before long it was met with a simple reply.

"You can live anywhere if you set your mind to it, so long as you can eat and sleep." came a deep, commanding tone. '_Looks like I have more company than I suspected- maybe I should lie low for now until I have a better grasp of things…'_

"Yuri, don't you have something to say?"

That one was definitely a girl, entirely different from the first voice. My home was being invaded!

"Oh, uh. Hey, we're coming in!" came the strongest of the three once more.

"No, the door!" The girl chided.

A slight pause, and then deep, bass tones resumed.

"Hey, Karol unlocked your door. Sorry about that!" It admitted somewhat carelessly.

Karol? Surely not the source of the reprimand, and certainly not its target. The youngest voice must be Karol. '_Well, Karol, I'm coming for you first_', I resolved silently, balling my hands up into fists.

"Oh Yuri..." The feminine voice scolded once more.

Yuri…so that must be the man's name. '_You're second_.' I decided, contemplating whether or not to spare the girl based on her etiquette.

"Sorry for intruding like this!" She continued in a careful warrant. "Is anyone home?"

Of all the idiotic-…

More footsteps, this time approaching my hiding place. My rage aside, I couldn't help shaking a little.

"It's a good thing no one's here. That means we get to look for evidence." Yuri deduced.

_'Hold on, now, buddy. Evidence?'  
_  
Suddenly my ears were filled with the sounds of the intruders rummaging through my bookshelves, casting aside my notes and possessions in search of their 'evidence'. '_Wait a second…they're going through my notes! Are they trying to steal my research? Forget hiding, I have to stop this __**now.'**_

As I rose from the floor in dramatic fashion, cloak billowing behind me as books fell from my shoulders, I turned to face a small boy. _'This must be Karol._' I thought to myself with a smirk. _'Brace yourself, kid, this is gonna sting.'_

"Gyaaah! Wh-wh-what is that?!" Karol piped up nervously, running behind who I assumed to be Yuri for protection and peering out at me cautiously.

"Shut up." I ordered him through my teeth in a low, quiet growl. Without a moment's pause I began to cast my spell, the formula washing over the ground with brilliant light beneath my feet. Catching on quickly, Yuri moved out of the way with haste. The boy, however, lacked Yuri's wit.

"Huh? Hey, hold on!" He stammered.

"Thieves…" I began, taking aim…

"No, what're you... Wait!"

"BE GONE!" I shouted, and Karol never finished his sentence. Fire leapt from my hands, and shrouded his form with blackening smoke. Luckily for Karol, I hadn't intended to kill him…yet. In a moment, the smoke began to clear, and revealed Karol, coughing loudly and muttering to himself.

"A g-girl?!" The feminine voice queried in shock.

I heard the sound of sliding steel to the side. They were starting to draw their weapons. Or weapon. From the look of things, only that Yuri character seemed to actually have one.

"If you have tricks like that, why'd you bother skipping town in Zaphias?" Yuri asked me. The sword continued pointing at me, as if he'd actually hurt me if I didn't talk.

"Huh? Skipping town? Why would I need to skip town?" I may be the town weirdo, but I wasn't a criminal for that!

"For stealing the blastia core from the lower quarter. What else?"

I narrowed my eyes in disbelief at what I was hearing. This guy _couldn't _be serious.

"What?" I snapped. "You're calling me a thief. Have you ever heard of "_common sense?_"

"Yeah, sure." Yuri replied casually. He wasn't fazed at all.

"So you barge into someone's house, call them a thief, wave a sword in their face… what the HELL kind of sense is that?" My fists balled tightly. I wanted to torch this guy _so much._

Probably sensing my rage, his pooch crept up from the side.

"Hey! Dog! Stay back you.. you dog!" I took a couple of steps back to distance myself from the animal. The dog stopped in its tracks, giving me time to focus on the boy.

"And you! Give him back!" I shouted.

"What do you mean?" The boy was taken aback by my outburst.

"The blastia! Give him back to me!"

The boy noticed what I was talking about. In his hands he held a small miniature I'd made of one of the blastia I'd found in the ruins. Of course, it wasn't real, but it's not like he needed to know that.

Karol made a motion like he was going to give the miniature back, when the girl swiftly walked over to me, bowing low.

"Wh- what's with you?" I was almost at a loss for words at her behavior compared to her companions.

"My name is Estellise." She said, straightening up again. "I'm terribly sorry for barging in on you like this. Yuri, Karol, you too!" She sent them a look that commanded them to apologize.

The boy instantly obeyed, lowering his head. "S-sorry." He didn't look too happy about having to apologize to me.

Yuri, on the other hand, merely sheathed his sword and stood silently._ 'I guess putting his weapon away is his idea of saying "Sorry! My bad!"_

"So.. what do you want?" I asked Estellise. After all, she seemed to be the most sensible of the three…

"Well, Yuri's been following a blastia thief from the imperial capital." Estellise replied.

"..and?"

"And that blastia thief," Yuri continued, walking over to me and gesturing to my clothes with an open hand. "Wore a cape.."

'_It's a cloak, you nimrod.'_

"Was short," He said, this time pointing at my forehead. Son of a-

"And their name was Mordio, so…" He trailed off, as if indicating all evidence pointed to me and my guilt was oh-so obvious.

'_So, they know my name? Interesting…I guess there's more to this after all.'_

"Mordio, huh? Well, Mordio is certainly my name. _Rita_ Mordio, to be exact."

The boy chirped in, pointing out the obvious. "And the height matches up, too!"

I shot him a quick glare, then returned to looking at Yuri.

"So, what do you have to say for yourself?" He demanded.

'_Oh, I have _plenty _to say.'_

"I told you. I have no clue what you-" Then it hit me.

'_That blonde knight, oh, Fluke, was it? His warnings... could they be connected to this?'_

"Oh... I hadn't thought of that. Follow me." I turned to the door and started to walk.

"What?" Yuri tried to stop me. "Maybe you didn't hear me. We're not finished." His will seemed to be wavering, and the latent venom resting beneath his words lacked its earlier presence.

I turned back to him, frustrated. He didn't know when to just listen to reason.

"Would you just follow me?" I asked impatiently. "There's talk of thieves down at the Shaikos Ruins."

Who knew I'd be going there twice in a day- especially under these circumstances?

"It came from an imperial knight who asked me for help. You should be able to trust it."

Thank you for the alibi, er… Floyd? Damn it.

I stepped off into the back room, leaving them to their business and attending to my own. If they were chasing a thief.. I'd probably be fighting, so I slipped into my other outfit: Bright red, and just dripping tackiness. It'd been pointed out to me several times, but I never bothered to change it. The outfit was comfortable and easy to move in.

I returned to them when I was finished, just in time to see them whispering to themselves like a bunch of school girls. I cleared my throat. "Finished chatting? Let's go."

"All right." Yuri agreed. "But don't even think about making a break for it."

"You don't _have_ to come." I said, frowning. Then I grinned. "If you want, I can just call the guards."

Estellise started to whisper to him. I couldn't really make out what they were saying, until I heard her mention Flynn_. _

Flynn_.. 'There's the name. Flynn.'_

I shrugged lightly. "It's up to you: Go to jail, make a run for it, or follow me. Pick one."

A moment of silence. Yuri's companions looked to him expectantly.

"Okay, okay!" He finally said, defeated. "We'll go with you."

I gave a small grin, and turned to the door. "The Shaikos ruins are to the east, once you leave the city."

I didn't wait for a reply. I just opened the door and stepped outside, the three of them following behind me.


	2. Take off your shirt!

The credit for this chapter pretty much wholly goes to Arrow-1. Enjoy.

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_'Awful quiet back there. Huh. You'd think they'd be interrogating me, or something. Whatever, this gives me a chance to analyze them…'_

"So how did you get all your information about the blastia thief?" Karol chirped up, breaking the silence. Of course.

"The lower quarter started to flood, and I noticed the blastia core was gone, so I started looking for answers." Yuri answered simply. "I found Mordio snooping around in some noble's house, and I only just missed her then. Well, assuming _my_ Mordio is _this_ Mordio. The Mordio I found had a mustache…or at least a fake one."

_'Fake mustache? Well, it looks like he doesn't think I'm a very high class of criminal, huh?'_

"…but that Mordio, whomever it was, got away from me when some knights showed up." Yuri continued. "At least Repede and I got back the stuff that Mordio swindled from the people in the lower quarter. A little extra money from the nobles, too, but they're not gonna miss it."

_'He's calling me a thief, and here he is admitting to stealing right in front of me! What a hypocrite…'_

"Knights? Cool! What were they up to?" Karol inquired excitedly.

"Well…I couldn't tell you for sure. I didn't hang around for very long." Yuri explained. Sounded like a lie to me. "Maybe they were looking for Mordio too? After all, he did pinch a few noble pennies."

"I guess I can believe that. The Imperial Knights are quick to get up in arms when the nobles are involved." Karol noted somewhat disdainfully.

_'Amen to that.'_

So far I'd figured out three things: Yuri is an insufferable hypocrite, Estellise is over-polite and actually seems to have more control than the mighty leader does, and Karol is your typical prepubescent boy. Wonderful.

As a pro to this entire mess, I was finally getting people to go back to Shaikos. Granted, they weren't mages, but maybe I could find- or make- a chance to get close to Goliath? I was sure they'd make decent distractions, and what's more it'd be taking down two birds with one stone; I would complete my research, and my new fan club would disappear.

As happy as I was to finally have a little company, regardless of whether or not I intended to dispose of them, the thought of thieves in the ruins infuriated me to no end.

_'How can people be so…so ignorant? Who gave them the right to just _take_ blastia, like they're nothing more than…_things_ to be abused? Those poor blastia…'_

I resolved to make sure we got rid of every last one of the thieves before I did anything to solve my own problems. I rolled my shoulders back, popping my neck and trying to relax, then looked back to see what the others were doing. Yuri was walking along silently, watching my back, as might be expected. I'd never had someone watching me so closely before, and it was rapidly becoming irritating. Estellise was chirping and chattering with Karol like she was only half her age, going on and on about different types of monsters he'd claimed to have defeated.

_'She sure is gullible…'_

"Hey." Yuri beckoned, demanding my attention.

_'Ugh. Rude too? What a jack ass…'_

"Yeah?" I returned, nonchalant.

"How much further?" He inquired bluntly.

"Not much further." I answered, purposefully denying him an answer.

_'Maybe if you'd just been a little more polite, hmm?'_

An irritated sigh from Yuri, and then he was silent again, the only sounds emanating from his presence a constant jingling from the coins in his pocket and his sword clanking against something on his belt.

_'I was kind of hoping you'd have a little more to say…Kind of hard to analyze a blank stone wall. …Pff, don't I know that.'_

Shaikos was suddenly visible as a small speck on the horizon, standing grey and tired against the blue sky.

_'Eh. I guess I'll tell him. Maybe he'll start talking again?'_

"Hey." I called back to Yuri.

"Yeah?" He replied.

Rather than speak, I merely gestured toward where Shaikos stood on the horizon. Yuri didn't speak, but simply nodded his head, and went back to staring off into space, searching the sides of the road for nothing in particular.

_'Damn it.'_

Without any warning, a tree, or at least what seemed to be one just a moment ago, rustled into life and stumbled out onto the path.

"Yaaaaaaaaaa-ah!" Karol shrieked, diving behind Estellise.

"That…that's not very brave of you, Karol." She chided, frowning and evidently more than a little disappointed. With a sigh, she retrieved a somewhat wicked looking saber from her side.

'…_huh?'_

"Heh. Looks like a big one, Captain Karol, but this should be no problem for you." Yuri cheered, drawing his own weapon and casting the scabbard aside, much like he did before.

'…_CAPTAIN Karol? He's the one leading these idiots?? …Does that mean they both believe his ridiculous stories?'_

Estelle looked to Yuri, somewhat distressed. "Do we really have to kill _all_ of the monsters we come across? It feels like it's almost wrong." She complained.

"Kill or be killed, Estelle. Come on Karol!" Yuri shouted, charging towards the enormous tree beast staring him down.

_'Guess he's more like a noble then, hiding behind the knights. A little irony in that, huh capta- oh.'_

Karol had picked up a broken sword, now a hammer of sorts, and followed in behind Yuri despite his ghost white expression. Estellise hung behind, chanting quietly to herself.

_'So she's a spellcaster. But she doesn't have a spell book?'_

I took out my own spell book as the thought occurred to me, opening to a page I'd earmarked for situations like this one, and began to chant a spell of my own.

"Oh flickering blaze, burn…fireb-uh!"

Yuri and Karol stood proudly over the corpse of the defeated beast, Yuri twirling his sword happily and Karol expressing his joy over the fact he was still in one piece.

"Thanks Cap! Couldn't have done it without ya." Yuri cheered, hopping down from the deceased body with a broad smile on his face.

"Y..yeah. S-s-sure…" Karol shivered, shaking his head at Yuri, unable to understand the way Yuri could just flip his kill switch on and off so easily.

"Oh! Well, that's nice!" Estellise beamed, probably happy she didn't have to draw blood.

I tucked my own book away quietly.

_'More than a few perks to traveling around with these goons.'_

"Come here, Yuri." Estelle ordered, though gently, walking towards him.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, really." Yuri groaned, rolling up his sleeves and exposing his arms.

Truth be told, there wasn't a scratch on Yuri or Karol, but Estellise still wasn't satisfied. A flash of light began to emanate from her gloved hands, and with a hiss, it disappeared.

"Thanks…" Yuri muttered sheepishly, flexing his muscles weakly. "Oh, but I think Karol took a bit of a beating back there! Check him all over, he got knocked around pretty good." Yuri exclaimed in an extraordinarily cheerful tone. His eyes lit up in an interesting way when he got excited like that.

_'Huh. Wonder what he's up to.'_

"Anyway we're probably good to go now, eh Mordio?" he said to me.

"I don't see why not. We're nearly there." I responded, pretending to be more interested in my spell book.

"S-aaaahhaha! Stop that! I'm ticklish!" Karol half giggled and half griped.

"Take off your shirt! That monster probably bruised you all over!" Estellise demanded in a manner not unlike that of a concerned nanny.

"Alright then, let's go." Yuri decided, and then started to walk, myself behind him, Estelle and Karol soon catching up. A few minutes passed...and then we were there.

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Author: Bet you guys were expecting a chapter on Shaikos, huh?


	3. Put your back into it

**AN8 Short chapter, but I wanted to get something out as soon as Arrow came back. Thanks for the patience.  
**  
_xXxXx_

Deep breath. Ahhhhhhhh…there we go. Home away from home.

"…These are the Shaikos ruins." I stated plainly, releasing my air and turning around to face them.

Despite being centuries old and on the brink of total collapse, The Shaikos Ruins still had a way of demanding one's attention. I myself having taken too many trips there to count, I stood in place, completely unfazed as I waited for the others to catch up. The others however, were a different story.

Estellise took in the view with the same kind of interest and excitement one would see in a child as they walked the halls of a large toy store. Karol wandered around displaying similar amounts of wonder and awe.

Yuri followed behind at a steady trot, sporting a look that stated he really just wanted to get this done so he could go home, already, and that he really didn't understand what was so great about a bunch of crumbly old rocks anyhow.

Estellise took some light, tentative steps into the ruins, scanning her damp and dusty surroundings. "It doesn't look like there are any Imperial Knights around." She murmured worriedly, continuing further in. The dog sniffed lightly at the ground in front of us before giving off a rambunctious snort, grabbing Karol's attention.

The boy hurried over to examine the dog's target, and found the point of interest quickly, pointing out footsteps embedded in the sand. "These footprints are still fresh, and there's a lot of them!" He exclaimed.

Estellise also examined them, as if the footprints would somehow divulge the whereabouts of whomever it was that they were looking for.

"Which means it's either the knights, thieves, or both." Yuri surmised.

"Which means.. some of these prints must belong to Flynn!" Estellise added helpfully, and more than just a little bit hopefully.

"Could be." Yuri replied, unsure.

I sighed. This was getting ridiculous. "Hey, over here!" I snapped, impatiently. "Hurry it up!"

A smug look crept over Yuri's face. "Oh, I see. First you get us alone in the dark, then you zap us, huh?"

"Hmm.. 'zap.' I like the sound of that." I pondered aloud with an innocently blank expression.

Karol immediately panicked. "H-hey, what's that supposed to mean? Why are you smiling like that?"

"Can we try to get along, please?" Estellise pleaded, starting off deeper into the ruins, eager to explore.

We moved further into the ruins, each step reassuring me that my theories were, unfortunately, correct. Though we found footprints out here, I had no doubts that the culprits were underground, and only one more thing could tell me otherwise.

"No one's here." Yuri frowned, looking around. I could tell from his face that this only made him more suspicious. "No Knights, thieves, or anything else."

"Maybe they're further in?" Estellise offered.

"How far in are we talking, here?" He gestured to the rest of the ruins, which consisted of a broken stairway and the terrace it led up to.

I walked over to a large marble statue, partially ignoring the rest of their conversation. I examined it from the side, muttering to myself. "The information about the underground couldn't have gotten out." It was too unbelievable. The underground was privileged information, known to myself and few others.

"Underground?" Estellise inquired.

"There's a secret entrance leading under the ruins that was recently discovered. Only a few people are supposed to know about it."

"And it's okay for _us_ to know this?"

I sighed. "Well, I don't really have a choice if I want to clear my name." I moved behind the statue, inspecting the concrete below it. Karol soon joined me, kneeling down to the ground and running a hand over the many lines in the stone.

"The ground is scratched here." Karol commented.

"It's a good thing we came when we did. I'd rather not let thieves have free run of the ruins, above or below ground." My frown deepened.

"Well, then we better hurry and follow them! We just have to move this, right?" Karol got up and moved to the front of the statue, apparently in preparation to move the statue himself. With both hands on the stone, he began to push it as hard as he could. I walked up along side of him, observing his futile efforts.

"Nah, nah." Yuri chided, walking up between Karol and myself. "Come on. You've gotta put your shoulder into it. Like this." He explained, before pressing mightily against the statue with just one of his deceptively thin arms.

The statue became mobile.

I watched closely as he performed this feat of strength, my eyes focused on the statue- but not exclusively. I can't imagine I was the only one, either.

'Not bad." I mused silently.

The statue scraped slowly along the stone walkway for a few moments more, before finally coming to rest beside a newly revealed staircase in the ground. Karol fell flat next to the statue, nearly exhausted. Yuri, however, still retained what seemed to be the full sum of his strength, and knelt next to the staircase unfazed, peering inside.

"Are you okay, Karol?" Estelle queried nervously, taking a motherly tone once more.

Karol began to reply with some exaggeration of how tired he had become but, remembering what had transpired just an hour prior after his altercation with the Treant, changed his tune.

"S-Sure, that was a cinch..." he huffed, trying his best to imitate his better at the entryway.

Without another word from anyone, we entered the passage, Estellise eagerly leading the way like a loose puppy.

xXxXx

(: Read and review.


	4. Goliath

-- It's been a long wait, but I reward your patience with a long chapter. Actually, half of this chapter isn't even proofread. And, just a forewarning, some actions will not be written as they happened in the game.--

The interior ruins yielded the same expressions and reactions the outside did. As soon as we passed through the stairwell, Estellise wandered off to the cliff to behold the enormous caverns.

"Wow!" She said excitedly. "This is my first time being inside ruins!" Overcome by wonder, she trotted over to the stairway a little too quickly.

I started running down the stairway to stop her in her tracks before she decided a tumble down the cliff face was in order. "Be careful over there. It's slippery."

Estellise turned around to look at me, then looked down at her feet, noticing the damp moss-covered stone. I sighed. Honestly, this was like babysitting toddlers.

I felt Yuri's eyes burning into my back, so I turned to face him. "What _are_ you looking at?" I demanded.

"I was surprised. You're actually a nice person." He explained, shrugging lightly.

I frowned at him, turning back around and uttering a small "Tch." as my reply. I began my walk towards the stairs, muttering softly. "I knew bringing you along would be a pain. I _should've_ come by myself."

"But you didn't." Yuri replied, completely defeating the purpose of my repressed volume.

"Wh-…" I attempted to shoot back, but I realized I was temporarily out of ammo. I did, after all, force them to come along. "So what? I lobbed out instead, knowing full well that it was a pitifully weak response.

"Come on every body, let's go further in!" Estellise shouted. For now, I was saved the rest of that conversation with Yuri.

I was not saved his self-satisfied smirk.

We trekked further inside of the cavernous architecture, surrounded by the sounds of a nearby waterfall and stone grinding tirelessly against stone. Loud, pounding sounds echoed from the unseen antechamber, deep within the earth. Various slick-skinned beasts hopped and slithered across the wet stone surfaces beneath our feet, eyeing the intruders with suspicion.

"Wriggly and slimy as they are, they're almost kind of cute…" Estellise mused quietly, scanning the area with her eyes.

I looked at her with disbelief. "Cute? Are you _serious_?"

She smiled back at me. "Yes! Look at their eyes, and they make such cute noises!"

I'd never thought about that, honestly. The monsters in here all looked the same: beady eyes, aquatic features, and an annoying croak-like squeak that only made me want to kill them more.

"I don't know. I don't see it." I said, frowning.

"Oh, well." Estellise smiled sheepishly.

I took a good, long look at one of the creatures. They were _ugly_ things, covered in tattered fins and staring back with those black, beady eyes. To me they looked wet and slimy. I really couldn't see "cute".

"You're crazy."

As I turned away from her, I noticed Karol running off ahead. He stopped, looking up at the towering blastia in front of him. "This one still has a core in it." He commented, surprised.

The rest of us moved over beside him, staring at the core for a few seconds. I'd used this same switch before dozens of times in the past. I pulled my ring off my finger and slipped it onto Yuri's finger. "Use this."

He held up his hand, eyeing the ring suspiciously. "…what?"

I frowned at him in reply.

"…Looks like this thing is set with a blastia core or something."

"It's a sorcerer's ring." I explained, but I didn't get far because Estellise interjected with an explanation of her own. Something about the ring being used to power blastia?

"Not quite. It more or less directs aer to blastia as a trigger."

Yuri moved his arm and pointed the face of the ring at the ball within the tower. "So I just point and shoot?"

I nodded. "Just make sure you aim at the core itself." I said, moving out of the way. Estellise, Karol and the dog copied me, scooting off to the side as well.

"Come on, hurry up!" I snapped.

"Hey, let me try!" Karol demanded.

_Hell no. You're not touching my ring, kid._

"Oh, this is so exciting!" Estellise bubbled. I drove my face into my palm, and missed Yuri taking the shot. The core glowed a bright blue, and the ancient crest wrote itself into the air.

"That's a strihm crest. It's a mark that indicates movement." Estellise explained.

The rocks behind us started to move, and the center of the ruins shifted as well, creating a rocky stairwell up to the next level. Even as the path locked into place however, stones continued to shift, and as rubble clattered over the edges of stone into the water below, we turned around to face new creatures lumbering around us slowly.

"Wh-what are those?" Karol stammered, pointing at the walls. There were huge dents left in the stone as a trio of golems patrolled the path.

"Just sentinels. They take care of unwanted guests. They're easy to outrun." Karol looked at me, knees shaking and nearly ready to fall over.

Yuri put a hand on Karol's shoulder, as if to comfort the poor child. "Come on. Just keep your eyes open and keep moving."

"Are you _sure_?" I asked, in a semi-mocking tone. "What if I'm just leading you deeper into the ruins to 'zap' you?"

Yuri wasn't amused. "I'm starting to think the golems are a better option." He walked over to me and tried to force the ring back into my hand.

"No, you keep it!" Truth be told, he was standing a bit too close for comfort. Something told me this guy wasn't used to the concept of 'personal space.'

"Isn't this supposed to be important to you?"

"We'll need to use it a few more times." I handed the ring back to him and he slipped it back onto his finger.

"I guess I better hold on to it, since I'm leading…"

Aside from the occasional fight with the disgusting fish-monsters (much to Estellise's horror) the journey to the back of the cave was quiet.

In fact, it was a lot quieter than any of MY trips. The sounds of Goliath's patrolling footsteps were now absent, and I started to tremble nervously. What if something had happened to him? He's been wandering that same platform for hundreds of years. There was no possible way he could have destroyed himself.

As we entered the antechamber, I could see the motionless Goliath in the distance, slumped over on the ground. _'How!?'_

I took off ahead of the others, ignoring their protests. The only thing that stopped me was the water that blocked my way.

"Hurry up! Hit the switches!" I called back. He must have understood how urgent this was, because Yuri disappeared around the corner. A few seconds later, the first half of the bridge rose from the depths of the moat.

"There's another one over there." I told him. Yuri ran off behind me to activate the second crest, just as the rest of the group was catching up.

"What's going on, Rita?" Estellise chirped, her voice quivering.

"I have a few theories…but I hope they're all wrong."

The bridge completed itself, and I took off at a sprint across it, stopping in front of Goliath's lifeless remains.

I stood there, staring, unsure of whether I should panic or celebrate. He'd stopped moving, but appeared undamaged.

"Whoa, what is this thing?" Karol gasped.

Yuri joined us, inspecting Goliath closely before grunting in frustration. "What I want is the aque blastia, not this _puppet._" He actually had the audacity to kick the poor thing!

"What are you doing? Don't kick him like that!" I snapped at him. Yuri stepped back a few feet as I started to climb up Goliath's back, anxious to finally complete my formula. I reached the core compartment and my jaw dropped.

"No, the core is missing!"

I couldn't bring myself to move. Who in the world could have done this? It was _horrible_!

"Hey Rita." Yuri's voice knocked me from my trance. "I think some of your friends are here." Yuri pointed up at a ledge and I directed my gaze at the neighboring ledge, just in time to witness a figure clad in robes move behind a pillar.

I jumped from Goliath's back and moved in closer.

"Hey, who're you?" I yelled up at the figure. He peeked out nervously and immediately stuttered an excuse.

"M-me? I'm just a researcher from Aspio!"

"I'm definitely convinced." Came forth Yuri's dry sarcasm.

"What about you? This place is off-limits!" He accused.

I smirked at the intruder, hands on my hips. "I think you just gave yourself away." I saw it recoil backwards at my words. "If you don't know who _I _am, you're no mage of Aspio!"

"Guess she has no problems with modesty." I heard Karol comment. I turned back to fire a glare at the boy, inwardly laughing as he fled behind Estellise.

The figure started muttering to itself, and I looked up at Goliath as the machine roared to life. That idiot had replaced the core!

"Ahh, it's moving!!" Karol screamed

As I started to move away, I felt Goliath's arm connect with my body, sending me flying through the air. A stunning pain shot through me as I crashed into a pillar, my weakened body falling limply to the floor.

The last thing I saw was Estellise running towards me as the rest of my world rapidly faded into darkness.

I couldn't have been out for very long. When I awoke, the pain had completely subsided and my head was filling with Goliath's angry roars.

My eyes opened only to stare into the bright green eyes of Estellise. My gaze wasn't held there long, because I noticed her bodhi blastia.

But.. _No way!_ I grabbed her hand to examine it. There was no way she could have healed me. Not like that!

"How did you...?" I couldn't finish. Estellise yanked away her wrist.

"I was only trying to heal you."

"Hey, stop playing around and help us!" Karol shrieked, dodging a blow from Goliath. I growled, getting up and running off towards the bridge.

"Alright, I'm going after that idiot! Stay here and take care of this!"

"What do you mean?" Yuri protested. "How are you gonna get through?"

I swore, turning around to face the awakened sentinel. Flames danced in my hands as my fireball spell began to power up.

"We'll just have to play with this wind-up doll for now." Yuri said. I cursed him in my mind. Even if this was a life-or-death situation, I wouldn't tolerate the abuse of Goliath, verbal or otherwise.

But now, I didn't have a choice. I was going to have to hurt Goliath. I never though it'd come down to this..

"Just be careful! He doesn't know how to go easy on people!" I warned in vain. I knew they wouldn't lighten their attacks.

"We still have to teach it a lesson." came Yuri's reply.

Oh God, how I didn't want to.

Goliath's attacks came at us, swift and powerful. The others fought back with the same fire, but I couldn't bring myself to hurt Goliath. My spells lacked the spark they usually had, and I found myself struggling to recite the incantations.

Goliath eventually fell to the ground in a position similar to when his core had been removed. I sadly walked over to the object of my studies, staring into the broken lights on his face.

"Now... to cut the power supply." I waved my hand, bringing into view the control screen of the core. I typed in the code, and the power faded away. Goliath would never move again.

I fought back tears.

"I'm sorry."

With that, any reason to come back vanished. My formula was left incomplete, these ruins carving a painful scar into my mind. Goliath survived for all these years, and finally he had died for nothing.

I heard footsteps behind me as they started to move away from me. "Rita? Come on!"

That obnoxious kid's voice, along with the mutterings of Yuri and Estellise as they pondered the fate of Flynn, shattered my moment of silence.

I took one last look at Goliath and ran to catch up to the group.

"If I'd just had some more time…I could have finished my anima formula!" At least then, Goliath's death wouldn't have been in vain- as horrible as it was to make that rationalization.

"Is THAT why we were fighting that thing?" Karol screeched at me.

"Of course." I didn't look at him, instead staring onward into the corridor.

Karol's reply was delayed, but he did manage to squeak out, "You suck!" What a great reply, that was. He was a genius. No, _seriously!_

"You were already here for the thief! I just enlisted your help a bit." I smiled at him. Karol uttered a near inaudible insult.

"Come on, let's go already!" Yuri called from the front.

And then I wondered why we were walking when that thief could be outside already.

_Author: And all I have to say is "lol"_


	5. Out of the Darkness

**AN8 I want to go ahead and thank my readers and reviewers, and especially thank those that continue to follow the story. I makes me happy to know that people like the writing.**The sense of urgency eventually returned. We backtracked quickly, dodging the monsters and sentinels as we made our back to the beginning on the ruins.

"Look, there he is!" Karol pointed at the thief, surrounded by a half-dozen of those fish-beasts. He was cowering, shaking and nearly screaming. We were still a good hundred feet away from him. I wanted nothing more than to stop right there and torch him. I couldn't recall being so filled with anger before in my life..! Even when I met Yuri and his troupe, I had been able to keep some sense of calm, but this was too far.

We moved in closer, Repede jumping ahead suddenly to intercept an opportunistic frog taking a dive at the hooded figure. More were to follow, however, and a battle broke out. Spells were cast and swords were swung, and soon the monsters lay dead on the dampened stone around us.

…Rather than thank us for our efforts the thief continued to cringe, hands up in front of his face. A meager defense, indeed.

"How can he just steal the core and run off like that?" I said, half to myself. I stared him down, as if trying to burn right through him with my eyes. Meanwhile, Repede began to close the gap between him and the figure, growling loudly.

The thief screamed, backing up until he was completely out of room to move. "Make him stop! Please! I was only hired to do a job!"

'A job, eh? Kind of like the job I'm about to run all over your face?'

"I was told I could get a good price for any blastia cores I could find!" The man yelped as Repede bayed threateningly at him.

"You stole cores from the capital too, didn't you?" Yuri accused, the business end of his blade not an inch from the coward's nose..

The man lowered his hands and stared back at Yuri. "What? The capital? No way! Not me. Never!"

Not the answer Yuri was looking for, granted. But that hadn't stopped him before.

"A friend, then?" He continued.

"Yeah! A friend! It's that creep Dedecchi, that's who it is!"

'_Heh. This guy spills easy.'_ Seemingly, the seas were beginning to part before us.

Yuri's expression changed softly. "Where's he headed?"

The thief glanced around quickly, taking inventory of the angry looks on our faces. He'd already spilled a name; he looked unsure as to whether he should or shouldn't talk about whoever employed him. Repede let out another sharp bark, and once again the man started to talk.

"He…he's probably picking up the money from the client right now." He surrendered.

"Client? Who's the client?" Yuri's sword started to lower. Whether he was assured his quarry wouldn't bolt, or that his arm was tired, I did not know. Either way, the thief let his guard drop and his speech became less labored.

"I don't know! I just know he's in Nor Harbor. I swear that's it. He's a big guy with a scar across his cheek and one eye missing."

"So he's stealing the cores?" Yuri went to confirm, preparing to think it over...

…before I decided to butt in. "And where did you steal that Sorcerer's Ring from?" A common thief wouldn't have a ring like that. They were too valuable to just give away.

"Who says I stole it?" He asked, looking genuinely offended. Well, what part of his face we could see did, anyway, "The client said I could use it for the job!"

"Liar!" I snarled. "Do you even know how difficult it is for anyone to get their hands on one? Much less the boss of a bunch of pickpockets."

"Honest! I'm telling the truth here!" He was very insistent on this. Still, I wasn't convinced.

"Whoa, this could be real big." Karol whispered. "Think someone important is behind this?"

"I think you might be on the right track, Captain Karol." Yuri replied as he shot a venomous glare at the thief, stopping him in his tracks as he went to make a break for it. "Doesn't sound like your average band of thieves."

"Man," the thief grumbled as he clutched at his hood, "First the knights, then the monsters, now this."

Estellise moved between Karol and I, smiling happily. "The knight? You mean Flynn was here?"

" Flynn? That's the guy. That damn knight." The thief spat.

I'd had about all I could stand of this joker. I was still furious. I wanted revenge. On top of all that, the sound of this guy's voice was even more grating than Karol's. I approached him, looming over his body and glaring daggers into what I could assume to be his eyes through the opening in his hood, and whipped my belt against his skull. I made certain that the buckle had full-on contact.

The man inevitably fell to the ground.

"Good going, Rita! Now he's out cold! What now?" Karol chastised as he walked over to the now unconscious blastia thief.

I blew him off completely. "Oh, I'll have the city guards come by later to pick him up."

"Then we better get back to Aspio." Yuri resolved, sheathing his sword. Without so much as another word, we took the stairs back up to the entrance and returned to the city.

These people had turned out to be nothing but bad luck and trouble. So many of my plans had been completely ruined…my goal, now, was completely unattainable. I was left with nothing but shambles of a dream and a seemingly endless number of questions.

Why did someone want to impersonate me? Why did someone bother to frame me of all people?

'_Maybe this situation is a lot bigger than I thought?'_

At the moment, I really didn't like being stuck with these three, but it looked like I was going to have to tolerate them at least a little bit longer…

The walk back to Aspio progressed silently until we reached the gates.

"Well, what now?" I asked of no one in particular.

"I think we should head to Nor Harbor and see what we can find out about this 'client'." Yuri offered. "What about you?"

I frowned at him and sighed. "Well, I have to rethink all of my plans, now…and think about where to go from here. That and somebody has to tell the guards about what's happened...You can rest at my place, and I'll meet you there to say goodbye."

From there we temporarily went our separate ways. I headed over to the large laboratory in the middle of the city. It was open to only the top minds in Aspio, each of us having our own special key.

I walked over to my station, ignoring the stares of one of the other scholars that studied opposite me. I'd made some of my greatest discoveries here in this very spot. Most of my notes were stashed in here, kept under close guard by lock and key- the remainder of which stayed strewn about tables in my hut. I had figured that incomplete research would throw off the unwary.

I slipped the key into the hole and the metalwork clicked, unlocking the drawer. With a frown on my face I reached my hand into the space and pulled out my papers, looking over my documents and pictures. I'd forgotten how much time and effort I dedicated to the anima formula, and at the same time I wondered why no one else had figured it out up until that point. Was Goliath truly the only specimen I could analyze?

It was at this point that I realized that I'd pretty much lost any reason I had to stay in Aspio. Whatever other discoveries I could make would have to be made out in the field, given the fact that most of my close-to-home research was complete.

I sighed loudly, shoving the papers back into the drawer and relocking it.

A short time later as I stepped back into my house, I was taken completely off guard by what I saw. Estellise was inspecting my bookshelf, a large book already in hand as she searched the shelves for another. Karol and Yuri had made themselves comfortable on my floor, the latter using a rather large dictionary as a pillow. They seemed so relaxed I could hardly believe I was seeing it. Had they no respect for my house at all…?

"You sure made yourselves at home." I said sarcastically, closing the door behind me and walking in. Yuri pulled himself off the floor, leaving a relaxed Karol behind him.

"Alright, so I'm sorry I ever doubted you." Yuri said. His apology was only half-done and sounded more than mildly sarcastic.

I responded with a sharp roll of my eyes. What an ass.

"It's about time we got going." Yuri announced as he picked his sword up off the floor by its decorated strap. "Estelle?"

Estellise was completely drawn into one of my books. I knelt down to the floor to get a glimpse of the cover; a geography book I'd abandoned long ago. Learning landmarks wasn't exactly the favorite field, after all.

"Estelle." Yuri repeated, snapping his fingers close to her face. She broke out of her trance, slamming the book shut and getting up, acting like it'd never happened. "I'm sorry! Alright, let's go."

And then they were gone.

I stood completely alone in my house. Once more, I had no one to distract me…or to talk to. I placed the book Estellise had taken off the shelf back into its rightful place, and pushed the lone dictionary into its spot next to the other textbooks on the floor.

After that little adventure, everything seemed so much quieter… I sighed and sat down on the floor, pulling my knees up to my chest and hugging them close. It was going to be quiet for a long time to come, too; Day after day of silence, with nothing to meet my ear but cruel, whispered words and the scratch of my pen.

I couldn't do it.

So I didn't get along with them very well. At least they didn't malign me- well…maybe at first, but not anymore. 'I guess being treated like a criminal was a few steps up from just being treated like a freak.' I didn't want to admit it, but I actually…I liked their company. I'd been locked up in silence for so long that I'd forgotten how a real conversation felt.

I slowly rose from the floor and dusted off my clothes. I had already decided what I wanted to do.

Aspio had been my home for years, but now I felt like I had to leave. Something was pulling me into this, telling me that my destiny lay beyond the cavern walls.

I opened the door once again, and I was washed in the city's dim glow. Yuri and his group had barely made it to the court. They must have taken their time…

I approached casually, eavesdropping as they carried on without me. Plans of doubling back to Halure were being discussed...Wasn't that the city Flynn had come from?

"I'm going with you." I stated clearly, raising my voice to be heard over theirs.

Estellise pivoted instantly on the heel of her boot, radiating joy. Yuri and Karol simply angled their heads behind her, bearing expressions on their faces that could only be read as, "Oh God, no."

"Really?" Estellise exclaimed, then trotted over to me and grabbed my hands. "This is so great. I've never had a friend my age before!"

Judging from how she was acting, I would have thought she was 12.

"I don't think we're-"

"This is going to be so much fun." Estellise continued to gush.

'_Riiiight.'_

The conversation that ensued was rife with arguments and excuses, and in the excitement Karol accidentally confirmed a suspicion of mine. There wasn't much to go on, but he'd made it clear that there was more to Estellise than met the eye.

Yuri silently reprimanded Karol with a steely glance, but his eyes softened quickly. Without another word, he led the way to the entrance of the cave, and sunlight washed over us once again. The weak musk of Aspio was washed from me by the cool breeze from the mouth of the cave, and I closed my eyes as I took in the smell of the fresh green grass.

Leaving home had never felt so invigorating..


	6. The Journals Part 1

**Author's Note8 Due to the lack of a specified time frame... there is none specified here.**

Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ

I've decided that it's time to start a new journal. Rather than document my discoveries, I will use this book as a vent for my travels, and possibly as a reference to the personalities of my new companions. It's been a few hours since I stepped foot out of Aspio, and the mountains are still in view, but the large entrance into the city itself is now completely out of sight. As I write this, I'm listening to the continual chatting of the others, minus Yuri. He seems to be more content in his own thoughts, or, like me, he'd rather just ignore the silly banter. I'm kind of excited to leave. I've never seen much of the world outside of the path between Shaikos and Aspio, so this will be a healthy breath of fresh air.

Well, looks like Halure is close enough for the others to take off running. Better stop writing or else they'll leave me behind.

Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ

So apparently Estellise is a 'magical' princess. It turns out that she healed the tree. No mage in Aspio could save it, so what made Estellise so special? Actually, I'm not really surprised those knuckleheads couldn't fix it, but that's beside the point. No healing arte could possibly be that powerful. Then again, she has that odd bohdi blastia, so maybe it's possible after all. There's obviously a lot more to her than meets the eyes: The clothing, the attitude… and the blastia she has. I have my doubt that that is where her power is actually coming from, but I'll need a bit more time to investigate before I make any assumptions. And of course, Yuri has the gall to lecture me. About what? Estellise. Apparently I'm a bad influence. And he's not? Right. He pretty much lied to their faces, and so nonchalantly, too.

The next stop is Nor Harbor. Yuri is getting his pants all in a knot because Flynn decided to leave him a message. He's badgering us to get a move on. Personally, I'd rather stay and study the tree, maybe find out why it came back to life so suddenly. But I guess I can come back, right?

Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ

I am writing this journal from outside of the inn in Capua Nor.

On the way to Nor we ran into a destroyed blastia and a bunch of disgruntled guards. They wouldn't let me look at it, and as soon as I figured out it was abnormal they tried to apprehend me. Dumb knights. It's my job to study the blastia, idiots. It's my job. The formula was all screwed up and mangled. The poor thing was being forced to do all of these ridiculous things with the aer. Anyway, that moron Karol decided to play bait and buy us time. Aside from the fact that he failed miserably, he got us chased into the woods. Everything was fine, and I even got a cheap laugh off of Karol when I pushed him into this stunning plant. Then we ran into the monster that attacked Halure. I think Estellise called it the Gattuso… The fighting was tough (Karol kept getting thrown into those plants that stun people) but the monster eventually went down and we were able to pass through. After we exited the woods, we were at a cliff overhanging the ocean.

The ocean is unbelievable. I've seen pictures in books, but I'd never been able to see it up close. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

The rest of the trek to Nor went rather smoothly, but when we arrived we stumbled upon something terrible. The townspeople were being abused, right in front of us. They'd already been robbed blind. The worst part is that it was at the hands of their governor! So this is how the empire treats its people, eh? And I thought the mages had it bad. A couple had lost their son to the clutches of Ragou, the governor of this city. Unfortunately, we weren't here to help the people. We were here to find Yuri's little buddy. Well, speaking of him, Estellise dragged him into the inn a few minutes ago. I can't help but find myself curious as to what she's making him do.

Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ

I am exhausted. I've never had so much exercise in my life, and I'm no slouch! I keep myself pretty toned, thank you very much. But today was something else entirely. We walked into a herd of basilisks. They're darn near made of rock! My fireballs hardly even singed the little rats, and Estellise's rapier couldn't get through their scales, so we ended up having to play support, but I ran my butt off. One of the little jerks managed to bite me, and I got poisoned. Humiliating. Estellise had to cure me right there in the middle of everything. As if Yuri needed any more reasons to question my ability. That antidote burns like hell, too, I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood- like I was gonna show anyone that I was hurt. Of course Yuri cut through them like cheese. He can slice anything to ribbons. The guy's built like a marble statue, I watched him the whole time and he didn't even flinch. I… _[The following text is smudged out of recognition, due to erasing.]_

Day XX, Month YY, Year ZZZZ

It's been a long while since I last wrote, and my last entry didn't exactly cover everything that's happened.

I'm sitting here in the cabin of the Fiertia, a merchant ship in the possession of Fortune's Market. We've been enlisted to help Kaufman, the president of the guild. Though I'm not too informed on how all of this guild stuff works, Fortune's Market is apparently one of the big guilds that's in charge of everything. That's good, right? We're working with the big kids.

A lot has happened since I last wrote. Turns out Ragou had built this giant blastia to control the weather. I could have stopped the damn thing, but some jerk riding a dragon flew in and smashed the poor thing to bits. What a waste! What a horrible thing to do! I swore that day I wouldn't stop my travels until I took that dragon freak down. Anyone that goes around destroying blastia is bad news and needs to be torched.

Since then, we've traveled across a continent, been arrested, gotten lost in a forest and I nearly had my face blown off. …okay, so that one was my fault, but I learned a bit of information that confirmed all of my suspicions: Estelle can use artes without a blastia. She was pretending the entire time! Oh, yeah. Estelle. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? I decided to start calling her that.

So we eventually caught Ragou, right? The bastard escaped charges, and then ran away! How do you like that? And now Cumore, that creepy captain from the knights, is making a mess of things. I'd learned that Yuri actually started a guild with Karol, and you know who the leader is? The little runt himself. How could Yuri just LET him do that? It's a disgrace, and it certainly can't be good for his pride.

Anyway, everyone else is outside, enjoying the sun. I can't really bring myself to join them. The rocking and pitching is hard enough to cope with as it is. I don't need the water and sky to remind me. Perfectly fine inside the cabin. That is… until the mermen show up and I HAVE to leave. I hope that doesn't happen, but knowing our luck it's going to anyway. Yuri keeps saying he's got some sort of curse that's following him. I'd believe him.

Damn, they're knocking on the door. Here goes nothing..


	7. Atherum

**AN8 Holy crap. Thanks a big bunch to my editor Arrow for this one. Really helped me out, and he deserves so much credit for the content here. So give him a lot of e-hugs. 8B**

Mermen were annoying. Smelled pretty nice when they were cooking though. Yuri and Karol busied themselves with disposing of the dead fish persons, Estelle and Judith shouting out words of support and being generally obnoxious all the while, and I returned to the cabin. Just another thing to write in my Journal. I was laying down in bed, scribbling on my latest page when I was interrupted yet again, the boat rocking hard and the sound of the water around me becoming audible through the wooden sides of the ship. I felt a certain, eerie weightlessness, and then I slammed flat on my behind into the floor of the cabin. The ship creaked and quaked, protesting loudly until it gradually came to a complete standstill.

Ready to roast a few more mermen I leapt up and charged the staircase to the deck, only to be met by empty stares. The ship was not moving, and the sails were still, hanging empty from the masts.

"Wh…what happened?"

"We don't know." Kaufman answered simply. "Tokunaga is at the engine making his observations now.

"I was. I'm done now…and so are we." He frowned, tossing his headwear at the deck in exasperation. "The blastia's busted. We're not going anywhere."

'_What??'_

"Lemme see it, get out of my way." I demanded, probably a little brusquely in retrospect, pushing my way over to the blastia through Tokunaga's frustrated scowl. I started to work at opening the blastia, my hands flying back and forth over its control panel frantically, but there was nothing for it. The blastia had ceased to function completely.

"Well, it's not dead. It's just disabled- not that I know how."

It was only now that I noticed what it was the others had been staring at when I arrived. I had been so taken with the disabled blastia that I'd missed the massive, decaying brigantine moored alongside us. Is that what we hit?

A creaking sound filled the air, and for a moment I thought that the hull had sprung a leak. I think that some of my hair fell out. Then the source of the noise revealed itself theatrically, and the gangplank of the brigantine slammed down onto the deck of the Fierta, rocking us violently and sending plumes of dust spiraling into the air. I myself jumped what felt like ten feet into the air, hair standing on end and screeching at the top of my lungs. It was not one of my prouder moments.

Collecting my senses again, I ran over to Tokunaga, who was poking rather uselessly at the blastia core. "Come on, get that thing running again!" I demanded, shaking him by the shoulders.

"I don't know what's wrong." He responded helplessly, throwing up his hands. I pushed him out of the way, sighing irritably. I dragged the core's menu into view once more, searching for some sign of a change. And there was one. Now it fizzed in and out. This wasn't good at all.

I looked over at the others; Karol must have run off to hide, but Estelle, Yuri and Raven stared at the ship, discussing it amongst themselves.

'_Now where is Judith… ?'_ My gaze moved to the other side of the ship, colliding with Judith's cheerful face. 'Ugh.' I glanced back at the ship, scanning the sides of it. _'Atherum?'_

"How long do you think it will take to get the blastia running again?" Yuri asked me, walking over..

"I'm not sure. Hours, maybe." I shrugged.

"Hey, would you get mad if we went to take a look?" Yuri was speaking to Kaufman now.

"What? What if the blastia starts working again?" Kaufman frowned

'_Wuh…go on the ship? No. Come on. Don't be stupid. Why in the world would you wanna go on there'_ I thought to myself confused and anxious, my face draining.

"Just send up a flare or something if it starts working. We'll be back." Yuri insisted.

"Well…"

'_Say no. SAY NO.'_ I ordered Kaufman silently.

"…I guess it wouldn't hurt. We could be here a while. But don't all of you go. Leave someone to keep watch."

'_DAMN. IT.'_

It had been decided that Yuri and Repede would go, taking along two other people. My admittedly selfish prayers were answered when Yuri called on the cowering Karol and the old man instead of me. Raven was more than happy to go, going on about how he'd "look good in front of the ladies" or some crap like that.

"Well, aren't they nice?" Judith giggled to herself.

She seemed so calm! What was WITH her? Even Estelle was a bit jumpy.

"Karol's so adorable when he gets scared like that." She went on to comment.

Actually, it was pretty funny. Karol was the first to board the ship, and he shrieked like a little girl when the boards started to creak. He tried to run off the ship, but Raven grabbed his arms and dragged him back. I did feel kind of sorry for him, I'll admit...

"Wow, they're all so brave." Estelle stared off at the ship in wonder. The boys had just disappeared behind a doorway.

Judith started to comment as well, and soon enough the two of them then started to gush about "Who was cuter" and "Who would win in a fight?"

I busied myself with fixing the blastia rather than joining them, hoping they wouldn't notice me off to the side.

Judith did however and she approached me, looking over my shoulder and smiling down at me. "Hey Rita."

'_Go awaaaay.'_ I chanted in my mind, as if performing some voodoo ritual. _'Go awaaaaaaaaay.'_

"Rita?"

"What, Judith?" I replied flatly, pretending to be busy.

She shook my shoulder gently, Estelle giggling in the background. "Why not come talk with us? We've barely been able to get to know each other!" Her smile grew.

'_Uh, no.'_ was what I wanted to say. "I have work to do." Is what came out of my mouth.

"Come on! You have plenty of time! You're always acting like you don't know how to have fun."

"I know how to have fun. I'm having fun right now!" I responded with a fake smile, wanting to slap her.

"It doesn't look like it…"

"Just leave me a-"

Before I could finish, the mast of the brigantine cut loose a thunderous crack. Before I could react, the mast fell over, crushing the cabin of the ship underneath it. Kaufman ran out of the cabin of the Fiertia just in time to watch the dust clear.

Estelle was already sprinting up the gangplank. "Oh, no! They're still in there!" She shouted as she ran to no one in particular.

'_Ooooh no.'_

I couldn't hide my emotions. For all of the things the guys did to get on my nerves, they were my friends, and now that I thought they may have been crushed I was scared. I raced onto the ship after her, waving to Tokunaga to continue looking at the engine. And, not surprisingly, Judith –walked- onto the ship with her face still locked in that same flighty expression.

"Alright, let's go!" She instructed. Wasn't she scared?

I forced myself to stop trembling. This was the last thing I wanted to do while we were here, and now that I actually was I could feel the ship mocking me. It was that same feeling I had on the Fiertia. … We weren't alone on this ship, and it wasn't the boys presence I was feeling. But, that couldn't be, right? It was just a feeling. I was letting my mind screw with me.

"Rita, come on!" Estelle called back to me.

She and Judith were investigating the damaged cabin, looking for a way in. The door that the boys had gone through wasn't damaged, according to Estelle, but it was locked from the inside. They couldn't possibly be stupid enough to lock us out. More bad vibes…

I began my own investigation while the two of them searched the cabin. Only the top of the cabin had been smashed, but the mast had fallen down completely and created a block over one side. The fracture in the middle wasn't complete, so one part was still connected to the other. Luckily, only the part above the lookout had broken.

I smirked to myself. That was our way in.

"Estelle, Judith, I think I found the entrance."

They turned around. "Where?"

I pointed above me at the mast. A long ladder led up to the crow's nest, the fallen mast leading back down to the cabin.

Judith was the first to reach the ladder. She inspected the weight of the first few rungs (Though considering how unbelievably thin she was, I couldn't imagine her breaking them) and jumped back off. "It's safe!"

Estelle looked up at the mast, then back at me. "Are you sure that will get us in?"

"It's the only chance we have."

We began our climb up the ladder. I was second to climb, Estelle having gone first and Judith going last. I figured looking down would make me lose my nerve, so I resolved not to. The mast was a lot taller than we'd thought, and it took us a good two minutes to reach the lookout. Now the real challenge came: Getting down the broken pole to the cabin. The mast was smooth and fell at a steep angle.

"…So, who wants to go first?"

Judith didn't even reply to me. She took off in a run down the mast, never losing her balance. Estelle and I lacked her coordination and simply slid down.

When we reached the cabin, we discovered to out dismay that a majority of the doors were locked, and it took us a great deal more walking to find that one magic door. I swallowed my fear, forcing myself to enter the dark interior of the brigantine.

The outside of the ship had nothing on the eerie darkness on the inside. That pull we felt on the Fiertia had become a head-pounding pressure that was pouring in from all sides. What little light there was filtered into the rooms through small cracks in the wooded ceiling, leaping off the many mirrors and creating the illusion of movement as the ship gently rocked. To be honest, my fear was starting to get the best of me, and I jumped at every sight of moving light.

The mirrors did nothing to calm my nerves. Every moving cloth reflected into my peripheral vision, giving me the ever-looming feeling that something was watching us… stalking us… I felt that, at any moment, something was going to pop out of them and attack-

_'Oh, my god, what's that!'_ my mind screamed. I stared in blank-faced horror at the mirror beside me, watching as a menacing looking sheet of blackened cloth floating behind me. I slowly turned my head, but all I saw was darkness.

"Rita, are you okay?" Estelle's worried tone brought me back to reality, and I slowly remembered I wasn't in here alone.

"Y-yeah. I just thought I saw something move, that's all.."

I looked back into the mirror. Whatever it was, it had disappeared from the reflection, but that stalker feeling only grew stronger.

Judith had walked further ahead, and we continued our trek deeper into the ship.

I could have sworn I'd heard a voice just then. "Estelle? Judith?"

They replied to me in near unison. "Yes?"

"... did you hear that?"

"No?" Estelle shook her head at me, but Judith looked around, as if trying to detect sound.

"Nope!"

_'Damn.'_

At that time, I felt something grab at my shoulders and squeeze. I instinctively let out a loud yell, running off in the opposite direction until I was beside Judith.

"Are you okay?"

"Something touched me!"

Then Estelle shrieked and moved back with us. "I felt it, too!"

"Oh, my." Judith said, her head cocking to the side. She walked in front of us, now wielding her spear. She took a swing at the air and the tip collided with an entity that fizzed in and out of sight. "Look what I found!"

The monster solidified completely and tried to attack Judith. She dodged off to the side and stabbed at it with the spear. The monster let out a shriek and collapsed to the ground in a pile of dust.

"I'm pretty sure half of the boys are dead by now." I said quietly. "There's no way Karol wouldn't be scared to death."


End file.
